e walk to the balcony door and we walk outside in the chilly breeze. The trees are glimmering with the green and red lights hanging on them. The huge Christmas tree in the corner is decorated with colorful ball ornaments and white garlands.

The red tinsel is wrapped around the green tree as well as the Christmas lights that made the whole backyard glow and on the top is a golden star twinkling under the moonlight, the growing pile of presents perches on the grass under the tree.

Two reindeers made out of plastic are placed next to the tree with yellow lights on them. Over all, the whole place looks beautiful and well-decorated.

"This place is awesome," Clara comments.

"It looks amazing," Luna adds.

"Thank you," I reply.

"You did this?" Luke asks from behind me.

I turn around to face him. "Yes, actually."

Now that I'm just noticing, Luke looks really good and by good, handsome as heck. He's wearing a dark green button up shirt with his sleeves rolled up and a pair of black jeans. There is a black beanie resting on top of head and I'm beginning to think he never takes it off except at home maybe.

He looks really attractive and I feel a grin coming on my face as I watch him. I snap out of it and look down at my heels. Holy mother of cow nipples.

"Wow, Cherries," he looks around in bewilderment and I smile in response, pushing away any Luke thoughts.

"The food looks good," Luna grins. "I'll go try it," she says before walking to where the food is.

"It's food, so bye," Clara grins too, then she joins her sister.

"Well," I turn to Luke. "Since you're the only one here, let's go meet my cousins." I tell him.

"Sure, why not?"

I give Luke a grin, before dragging him to where my cousins where all standing. Some of them are talking to each other and others on their phones. They all stop what they're doing once they notice me...well, actually, when they notice Luke.

"Hey, guys. This is Luke, he's my-"

"Boyfriend?" Carrie pipes up.

"No," I roll my eyes. "My friend."

"Your friend that could be your boyfriend in two weeks?" Tyler guesses.

"No," I hiss. "He's just my friend."

Seriously, what's wrong with people these days?

"Anyways," I turn back to Luke. "Luke, meet my cousins. This is Tyler, Chris, Avianna, Carrie, Abby and Landon." I point at each one as I introduce them.

"Hi," they all say.

Landon steps forward and holds out his small hand, "Hello there. Nice to meet you," he gives Luke a toothy grin and I smile at his cuteness.

"Nice to meet you, little guy," Luke shakes Landon's out stretched hand.

Landon turns to me, "Lyn, you said I should be nice and I was. Can I get a cupcake now?" He tilts his head to the left.

"Of course, sweetheart," I bend down a bit and tap his nose. He giggles cutely, holding his arms up for me to carry him and I smile, then I lift him up and place him on my waist.

"It's so nice to meet you, Luke," Avianna beams. "Wow, he is really hot," she tells me in a low voice.

"Thank you, Avianna. At least someone's honest about what they think of me," he says, glancing at me.

"Way to boost his ego, Avi," I mutter.

"Admit it, Cherries. You love it," Luke says.

"No, I don't," I scoff.

"Sure," he smirks.

"I'm going to go get Landon cupcakes. Excuse me," I say, because I feel like all of the blood in my body is flowing to my cheeks. "Don't scare the guy!" I yell as I walk to the table.

"We won't!" Avianna yells back.

I stroll to the food table with Landon still on my hips and I put him down before I give him one of the red-frosted cupcakes, then I grab one of my own.

"Hello, Anna," A feminine voice says from beside me.

"Jennie," I reply, looking at her and placing the cupcake down on the plate.

Her black curly hair is in its frizzy nature, only it looks beautiful and not like humidity is against her. She is wearing a red dress that is hugging her curvy figure and stopping above her knees and a pair of white heels in her feet. Her dark brown skin is glowing and covered with simple makeup. She looks gorgeous as always.

"I see you invited Luke Carter. Are you dating now or something?" She questions, crossing her arms.

"Am I not allowed to be friends with a guy? Or is that not in your dictionary?" I shoot back.

She cackles humorlessly, "If you think you can be close to someone like Luke Carter, then obviously you're in delusion," She looks down at the wooden table, swiping her fingers against it before dusting her hands off.

"I can be as close to him as I want. It's my life, not yours, Jennie. You can't go around telling me what is right and what is wrong in my life. It's none of your business," I declare.

"Listen to me closely, Falls. He's never going to look at someone like you. Ever. And if you think he will, then you're either blind or dumb. He doesn't hang out with your kind of specie, never had and never will. Just because he dated Fiona before, doesn't mean he'll look at you, worst yet, glance at you. So take my advice and leave him alone. He doesn't want your yellow ass," she spits out.

That's when I burst out laughing at her and she looks at me with confusion. As I continue howling, her facial expression starts changing and her hazel eyes narrow, while her jaw clenches from gritting her teeth too long.

"You listen to me closely, Jennie. I will do whatever the heck I want and if you think that your choice of words or your empty blackmail will hurt me, then you're wrong because I'll never give a crap about what you think of me or what you say. Call me an Asian freak, a yellow crayon or even a brat, I won't give a single crap. Never had and never will," I state, mocking her words.

She continues glaring at me that I start thinking red laser will blast out of her eyes and burn a hole in my head. If we are in one of those cartoon shows, puffs of steam would be shooting out of her ears right now.

"Hey, Anna," My brother appears beside me.

"Hey, Cameron," I greet him.

"Jennie," he nods at her.

"Hi, Cameron. I was just talking to Anna about a few things," she smiles innocently at him, like she wasn't about to explode a few seconds ago.

"Of course, you were," he smiles back at her sweetly. "Mum needs you," he tells me and I nod is response.

"Excuse me," I smile at Jennie.

Thank you, Mum.

| | | |

"Alright, everyone. Settle down please," Mum announces, clinking her glass with the side of the fork.

Ugh.

"Anna," she gestures for me to stand up.

"Do I have to?" I whine.

"Please, honey," she requests.

"Fine," I groan, standing up.

Since I was fifteen, mum had always made me do a Christmas speech for my family because she thinks I'm a great 'talker' and she basically made me her speech talker ever since.

"Hi, everyone," I start slowly because I can feel my body heating up and sweat forming on the back of my neck. Seriously my anxiety doesn't help with this. "You all probably know who I am and if you don't, then I'm Anna Falls and I'm so glad to have you all here with me–with us today." I continue.

"Christmas is one of the holidays that I'm truly grateful for, as it's a chance for us all to be together and support each other. Also I love snow, so that's a bonus." I say and the entire dining room erupts into chuckles. "And food. Both. Snow and food. They are important." I quickly add and everyone laughs more and I, myself laugh a bit.

"It is a blessing for us to be gathered here today and it's what makes us close. This day, is a day for us to be united and brought together. And well, you know, to get presents because we all know that's what everyone is here for today. Again, don't forget the food," I joke and people howl with laughter once again.

They quiet down and I start talking once again, looking down at my bracelet. "I have always thought that the people that are with you in presence are the people who are really with you, that join you on this event, but that's not true." I pause. "Every single friend and family member is with us here today, not by presence, but by heart and that's...that's what everyone needs to know. That those people that are not here in this dining room are in our hearts and that's where they'll ever be, because they're truly dear and close to us," I clear my throat and look back at everyone.

I hold up the pineapple soda filled glass and people follow my actions. "So, to everyone who's not here with us by presence, but by heart. To every single person who will always be loved us," I announce. "By the way, this is soda. I'm not into alcohol. I'm still seventeen, people," I tell everyone.

A row of laughs erupt through the house and everybody's glasses meet in the middle, clinking together.

"Thank you, everyone. Merry Christmas and enjoy!" I smile, before sitting back down and letting out a huge sigh of relief, feeling like my whole body just had a rush of cool air go through it as everybody starts piling food onto their plates.

I feel someone's eyes on me and I turn my head around to catch Luke's gaze from across the table. I give him a small smile and he smiles a bit back in response.

'Good job,' he mouths.

'Thank you,' I mouth back.

He holds up his glass as a distant toast and I do the same thing, before bringing it back down and sipping from it as he sips from his own glass.

Merry Christmas, Ana.

| | | |

"Mum," I look up from the present from my mother. "What am I going to do with a freaking spoon?" I ask in confusion.

"Turn it around," Mum says.

I turn the spoon around on it's back and written on it's front is Cereal killer.

"Thanks, Mum," I tell her sarcastically.

"You're welcome, honey. I know you'd love it as soon as you see it," she grins.

Uncle Nicholas, Abby and Carrie left a few minutes ago. Aunt Fae is still chatting with Emily and Aunt Maria had to leave because she was giving Abuela a ride to the airport. Before my grandmother left, she said the weirdest thing ever.

"He's a good boy, Anna. Don't let him go," she had said.

I frowned in confusion, "Luke?" I questioned. It was the first name that came to my mind.

"Yes. Don't you think so?" She asked with a mischievous smile on her lips.

"Abuela, sabes que Luke y yo solo somos amigos. ¿Verdad?" I confirmed. I have said that Luke and I are just friends at least three times for the past few days and I was getting tired of repeating it.

"Querida, esto no es solo una amistad y conozco una conexión cuando la veo," she responded.

Connection? What connection?

I didn't say anything and when she noticed I got nothing to say, she continued on. "Sabrás de lo que estoy hablando pronto," she winked at me.

So, my grandmother is basically rooting me with one of the most dangerous and hottest guys in the neighbourhood. Which is not okay. At all.

"Mum, is this really my gift?" I ask.

I always knew my mum is a wacky kind of person, but I never knew that she'd be so wacky that she would get me a spoon with a pun on it.

"Honey, be grateful. There was a passive aggressive poster that I could have got for you for all those times you judged my paintings," she says.

"Because your paintings are just smudges of paint. They're not even considered paintings," I reason with her.

"It's art in a special way, sweetheart," she insists.

"Sure," I reply.

She chuckles softly and stands up, then she places her wine glass on the coffee table, "I'll go get a cupcake. Want me to get you one?"

"One?" I raise an eyebrow questioningly.

"Right. Four," she corrects and I grin at her.

She strolls out of the living room and disappears into the kitchen. I hear my phone buzz from the table and I grab the phone off of it.

New message from Tiana aka Soph.

I scroll down and I find a picture of her smiling and dressed in a green dress and in the background is a huge light up LED sign that read out Merry Christmas.

"Hey," A deep voice says from beside me and I look up.

"Oh. Hey, Luke," I smile, turning off my phone.

"I saw Jennie talking to you earlier. Is everything alright?" He asks.

"Yeah, everything's fine. We were just chatting and stuff," I reply, partially lying.

I had already lied so much in my life that I most certainly have a reservation in hell by now. It didn't matter if I added another lie onto my list.

"Okay," he says slowly in suspicion.

"Anyways," he says. "Here," he gets a nicely wrapped present box from behind him, holding it out and my eyes widen.

"Luke, you didn't have to," I continue staring at the box with the same facial expression.

"Nah, it's fine," he waves it off. "Kind of took me awhile to find you something, but I managed to do it."

"I-"

"Just take the damn box, Cherries," he rolls his eyes.

I take the box from between his hands, not missing the amount of tingles that shoot through my body when our fingers touched. "Should I open it now?"

"As you want," he shrugs.

"I'll open it later," I tell him, wrapping my arms around it and I suddenly remember my own gift to him.

Yes, I bought Luke a present and it took me ages to find him something because I only knew a few things about Luke and I had no idea what he would like, until an idea popped in my mind.

"Almost forgot. Stay here," I say, standing up and Luke gives me a look of confusion, but nods nonetheless.

I quickly rush upstairs to my room and unlock the door, pushing it open and walking inside. I place Luke's present on my bed, before grabbing the wrapped small box from on top of my desk, before going back downstairs and sitting next to Luke.

"Here you go," I hand it out to him.

"You got me a gift?"

"Duh," I reply.

"Should I open it now?" He asks, mocking me.

"If you want."

I got Luke a Thai silver tree pendant that I really loved once I set my eyes on it. I remembered seeing Luke's tree tattoo and how he liked the forest green color, so I decided to buy it for him. I wasn't sure if he was going to like it or not. Fingers crossed, he will.

"Whoa," Luke's eyes gaze at the pendant in the box with admire and he gets it out. "This is beautiful, Cherries."

"Really? You like it?" I question, fumbling with the bracelet on my wrist.

"Yeah, it's really beautiful," he strokes the tree carving with his thumb, before looking up at me.

"Thanks, Cherries." He says and his lips tug in a grin as he stares in my eyes with his green ones.

Suddenly I feel so nervous under his stare and it isn't because of my anxiety, it actually makes me feel all giddy on the inside. It's making me nauseous, but in a really good way like there is a bunch of unicorns partying in the pit of my stomach.

And I do not like it. At all.

| | | |

From: Luke

To: Cherries

Merry Christmas, Cherries. Hope you like this.

-Luke (aka Idiot)

I chuckle at my nickname for him and rip the wrapper off of the box, then I take the lid off, placing it on the blue sheets. I see two fluffy white ears poking out of the white wool used for packaging and I get it out.

A white medium sized teddy bear with red ears and paws appears and I look at it with wide eyes. I used to have this bear as a kid and I took it everywhere with me back in fourth grade because I was in love with that thing, then came the day I lost it and mum told me that they stopped selling it and I felt like my world just crashed down. I even told my mum that I'm not coming out of my room until the world magically sends me a new one as if I'm the female reincarnation of Jesus. I was a very dramatic child.

I don't even know how Luke knew I used to have this thing and it was like a best friend to me. Maybe he asked one of the girls. I hugged the bear close to my chest, relishing its new smell. Cinnamon.

I look back down at the box and a small black box catches my eye. I tuck my bear under my arm and get the black box out.

I open it's lid and there laid a silver bracelet with Cherries carved in the middle of it's chain and three lucky charms shaped as a cherry, a clover and a tree is dangling from across the carving. I run my finger over the jewelry, feeling its coolness.

Wow.

I take the bracelet out and wrap it around my left wrist where Ana's bracelet is. I smile down at the brand new bracelet on my wrist.

Luke Carter, you sure are something.

| | | |

❀